MULTIZ321
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ROYAL HOLIDAY CLUB RHC (POINTS)
They Thought I Was Dead': A 9/11 Survivor Recalls His Escape
By Aisha Turner and Emma Bowman/ Heard on Morning Edition/ Story Corps: Sharing and Preserving the Stories of Our Lives/ National Public Radio/ npr.org
"On Sept. 11th, 2001, Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower for a business meeting when the terrorist attacks started.
Dittmar, then 44, had been visiting New York City from Aurora, Ill., a Chicago suburb, where he worked in the insurance industry.
Before the meeting began, the first plane hit the North Tower, and Dittmar saw the hellish aftermath from a South Tower window.
In an interview with StoryCorps last August, Dittmar, now 61, vividly recalled the scene, describing "gaping black holes through the sides of that building ... gray and black billows of smoke pouring out of those holes, flames redder than any red I'd ever seen before in my life, flicking up the side of the building."
Dittmar took the stairs to evacuate. He said he'd made it to the 72nd floor when, 17 minutes after the first crash, the second plane hit the tower he was in.
Some of the other people from his business meeting took the express elevator to try to get out and did not survive.
All he could think about was making his way back home to Aurora to see his wife and four kids.
He'd taken the train to Manhattan that morning from Philadelphia, and so he decided he would go back to Penn Station and hop on a train to go back, get his rental car and then drive to Illinois.
"The train was packed with people sitting and standing," he said. "Not a word was spoken — there weren't any words to say."
He spent the night at his parents' house in Philadelphia, and before making the drive the next morning, Dittmar called work to let them know he would not be coming in that day. "It was a good thing," he said, "because they thought I was dead."...."
Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. He recounts what happened that morning in a StoryCorps interview last year in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Jud Esty-Kendall/StoryCorps
Richard
By Aisha Turner and Emma Bowman/ Heard on Morning Edition/ Story Corps: Sharing and Preserving the Stories of Our Lives/ National Public Radio/ npr.org
"On Sept. 11th, 2001, Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower for a business meeting when the terrorist attacks started.
Dittmar, then 44, had been visiting New York City from Aurora, Ill., a Chicago suburb, where he worked in the insurance industry.
Before the meeting began, the first plane hit the North Tower, and Dittmar saw the hellish aftermath from a South Tower window.
In an interview with StoryCorps last August, Dittmar, now 61, vividly recalled the scene, describing "gaping black holes through the sides of that building ... gray and black billows of smoke pouring out of those holes, flames redder than any red I'd ever seen before in my life, flicking up the side of the building."
Dittmar took the stairs to evacuate. He said he'd made it to the 72nd floor when, 17 minutes after the first crash, the second plane hit the tower he was in.
Some of the other people from his business meeting took the express elevator to try to get out and did not survive.
All he could think about was making his way back home to Aurora to see his wife and four kids.
He'd taken the train to Manhattan that morning from Philadelphia, and so he decided he would go back to Penn Station and hop on a train to go back, get his rental car and then drive to Illinois.
"The train was packed with people sitting and standing," he said. "Not a word was spoken — there weren't any words to say."
He spent the night at his parents' house in Philadelphia, and before making the drive the next morning, Dittmar called work to let them know he would not be coming in that day. "It was a good thing," he said, "because they thought I was dead."...."
Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. He recounts what happened that morning in a StoryCorps interview last year in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Jud Esty-Kendall/StoryCorps
Richard
